One Glass A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

“One glass a day keeps the doctor away.” – One glass of wine per day… Is this true? or is this just a clever marketing scheme that allows us to enjoy a glass of wine guilt free? Who knows… but when a reputable health insurance proclaims that very statement on their monthly literature, I believe it!

In this day and age, we are constantly reminded about what we should or shouldn’t do when it comes to diet pills. Whether official or self-imposed, those “rules” exist based on a fictitious norm that everyone is trying to follow. And the second we do something out of that norm, we guilt ourselves for days! The biggest culprit is the media, and everyone has an opinion! – “Oh my! You had two squares of chocolate. Good luck trying to lose those extra calories.” Kinda takes away a big chunck of pleasure from doing something that’s supposed to make us feel good in the first place. For the most part, people indulge their cravings with moderation… You know, that annoying little friend that reminds us to be responsible… but how responsible? Well, that is for you to find out. And this might help: According to the United States Department of Health & Human Services, and the Food & Nutrition USDA department, wine has been shown to lower cholesterol levels. How cool is that!? So just for fun, I googled “wine lowers cholesterol” and received a whopping 794,000 results! It is all over the internet.

Regularly drinking high quantities of alcohol is detrimental to your health. But a number of studies in recent years has shown that moderate drinking can reduce the risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and decline in cognitive functions. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public health wanted to extend these studies by taking a look at how moderate drinking affects overall health among aging populations. According to the study, drinking habits and patterns matter most: “What you drink (beer or wine) doesn’t seem to be nearly as important as how you drink. Having seven drinks on a Saturday night and then not drinking the rest of the week isn’t at all the equivalent of having one drink a day. The weekly total may be the same, but the health implications aren’t.”

The “Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010” defines moderate alcohol consumption as the consumption of up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men – my sincere apologies to all my female friends.

Red wine contains antioxidants that promotes cardiovascular health and protects against free radical damage. Resveratrol is a plant compound found in the skin of red grapes. Red wine contains very little of it but enough to be mentioned in various health related articles. The benefits of Resveratrol vary from anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-viral, and for the skeptics, positive results on testosterone levels. Do I have your attention now?

One could argue that the health benefits could come from additional factors, other than the drink itself. That’s a good point, being able to enjoy a glass of wine without the feeling of guilt creates happiness, which in turn produces endorphins and serotonins, which brings us back to happiness. That’s a kind of vicious circle I like.

A plain guideline written by some doctors’ committee would lay flat without a real sample of life and happiness as I know it. Jeanne Calment, a French supercentenarian who had the longest confirmed human lifespan in history, lived to be 122 years old. She proudly advertised her diet which naturally included a glass of wine every day. So I say go ahead and enjoy your glass of wine every day without guilt, because this is exactly (and literally) what the doctor ordered. Cheers to some good news and may we all live a responsible, long and healthy life.

 

 

Wine quote: “Whoever said laughter is the best medicine clearly never tried wine.” – Anonymous (enjoy more famous excerpts by visiting our wine quotes page.)